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Show Beieased by Western Newspaper Union. WAR CONDITIONS AND COMMODITY MARKET IN THE EARLY SUMMER of 1929 a banker friend and I were lunching together at the Chicago club. A stranger came into the room and at his request, was introduced to my banker friend. "Yesterday I achieved an ambition ambi-tion of which I am sure you will approve," said the stranger. "I purchased some shares of stock In your bank." "At what price?" asked my banker bank-er friend. "At $1,150 a share," replied the stranger. "No, I would not approve," said the banker. "I advise you to sell those shares at once. They are not worth any such price. They never have been and never will be. The stock is on the board and we cannot control what the public is willing to pay for it, but the stock will pay a reasonable dividend on less than hah" that price." That incident illustrates the stock market inflation of 1928-29. People had money and were willing to pay unreasonable prices for stocks. Their demand pushed the prices up to unwarranted heights. They made the wild rise of such men as Insull possible, and then in the fall of 1929 they paid. What happened then in the stock market is threatening today in the commodity market and half measures meas-ures will not stop it. The President's Presi-dent's ceiling on commodity prices will help, but that ceiling cannot be maintained if the cost of production continues to go up, as it must if the cost ol labor continues to rise. Prices must go up with increased labor costs, or industry goes broke and closes up. Increasing prices for labor means not only the necessity for increasing prices on commodities for civilian consumption, but also on war supplies. sup-plies. It means an ever-increasing cost of our war effort, an increasing burden of indebtedness for our children chil-dren and their children to pay. Why not a ceiling on wages that are now $1 an hour or over, and a 48-hour week? That would help to control the inflation tendency and help to make possible the ceiling on commodity prices. THE REGULAR ARMY AND V. S. GREATNESS I SEE AND MEET many of those serving in the armed forces of the nation whose job is to defeat for us our present enemies the Huns, the Japs and the Wops. As I talk with them and know the valor and ability they represent for us, my memories turn back to soldiers sol-diers I knew in past days those of the little regular army that made the greatness of this nation possible. It was but a mere handful of valiant men, officers and soldiers, who pushed back our frontier from the Allegheny mountains, at the close of the American Revolution, to the broad Pacific That little handful hand-ful of men conquered the wilderness and the plains and the savagery to the Mississippi, to the Missouri, to the Rocky mountains and on to the Pacific. They blazed the way for the pioneer, the homeseeker. They made towns and cities possible. It is from the towns, cities and farms, which the little regular army of the United States made possible, that1 today come the soldiers and sailors who are protecting us in this greatest great-est of all wars. It is largely from these towns and cities and farms that is coming the food, the planes, tanks, guns and ships needed by our soldiers of today. All glory to that little regular army which conquered for us the America we love today. It was my privilege to know many of the members mem-bers of that valiant, hard-fighting force during the last quarter of the last century. OWNERS OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY TODAY OWNERS OF American industry are the average, every-day Americans. Ameri-cans. One-hundred and sixty-five of our industrial corporations are owned by 5,490,601 stockholders. In 1940, the average dividend paid to each stockholder was $1.91. The amount of taxes local, state and national for each share of stock was $3.92. Industry is owned by the rank and file of Americans. Through industry we provide jobs for millions of employees. These employees provide a market for our farm products. Through industry we pay the greater part of the co6t of government and for the support of our Institutions. We are all directly di-rectly or indirectly, a part of business. NEAT TAX SUM FROM AUTOMOBILES THE STATES RECEIVE the neat sum of $3,917,450,000 in revenue from automobile owners each year. That represents what is paid as automobile license fees and sales taxes on gasoline and oil which go to the states, exclusive of what the federal government takes. It represents rep-resents 277 per cent of the total income in-come of the state governments. If the war continues for two years, much of that revenue will be wiped out |